2012 Spanish Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

Lewis Hamilton ran a 31-lap stint at the end of the race and still had enough tyre life to attack Nico Rosberg for seventh.

Spanish Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1

Stint 2

Stint 3

Stint 4

Stint 5

Pastor Maldonado

Soft (11)

Hard (13)

Hard (17)

Hard (25)

Fernando Alonso

Soft (10)

Hard (16)

Hard (18)

Hard (22)

Romain Grosjean

Soft (10)

Soft (16)

Hard (25)

Hard (15)

Kimi Raikkonen

Soft (11)

Soft (16)

Hard (21)

Hard (18)

Sergio Perez

Soft (1)

Hard (16)

Hard (20)

Hard (0)

Nico Rosberg

Soft (9)

Soft (13)

Hard (18)

Hard (26)

Sebastian Vettel

Soft (7)

Hard (20)

Hard (15)

Soft (24)

Michael Schumacher

Soft (10)

Soft (2)

Kamui Kobayashi

Soft (8)

Hard (18)

Hard (15)

Hard (25)

Jenson Button

Soft (9)

Hard (16)

Soft (13)

Hard (28)

Mark Webber

Soft (6)

Hard (11)

Hard (23)

Hard (25)

Paul di Resta

Soft (9)

Soft (14)

Hard (19)

Hard (23)

Nico Hulkenberg

Soft (10)

Soft (9)

Hard (20)

Hard (26)

Jean-Eric Vergne

Soft (10)

Hard (13)

Soft (17)

Hard (25)

Daniel Ricciardo

Soft (11)

Hard (14)

Soft (14)

Hard (26)

Felipe Massa

Soft (10)

Hard (19)

Hard (16)

Hard (20)

Bruno Senna

Soft (12)

Vitaly Petrov

Soft (10)

Hard (18)

Soft (16)

Hard (21)

Heikki Kovalainen

Soft (13)

Soft (14)

Soft (16)

Hard (22)

Charles Pic

Soft (15)

Soft (12)

Hard (8)

Timo Glock

Soft (14)

Soft (12)

Hard (21)

Hard (17)

Pedro de la Rosa

Soft (10)

Soft (9)

Hard (16)

Hard (16)

Soft (12)

Narain Karthikeyan

Soft (11)

Soft (11)

Hard (0)

Lewis Hamilton

Soft (14)

Hard (21)

Hard (31)

Lewis Hamilton’s progress from 24th to eighth by the end of the race was aided by him making good progress through the midfield in the opening laps.

He gained four places on the first lap but continued to gain places in the laps that followed. This was vital, as it meant those who pitted early came out of the pits behind him, allowing him to delay his first pit stop until lap 14 – later than everyone bar Charles Pic.

From there McLaren put him on a two-stop strategy. It left him needing to complete the final 31 laps on one set of tyres – which he managed, making him the only driver to finish the race using a two-stop strategy.

He was pleased with his effort: “People often say that I have an aggressive driving style, but my final stint on the [hard] tyre was 31 laps, so I reckon I proved today that I can make tyres last.”

It also allowed him to finish in front of his team mate, who had started 14 places further up the grid. Jenson Button seldom looked comfortable in the car all weekend, and tended to lose more time when following another car closely.

Spanish Grand Prix pit stop times

For the third time in five races Ferrari were the quickest team in the pits. All three of Fernando Alonso’s pit stops were faster than Pastor Maldonado’s.

The Williams driver lost four seconds in the pits compared to his rival. This could have been decisive – Maldonado’s winning margin was less than that.

McLaren’s recent track record with pit stops certainly gives Hamilton an incentive to use strategies which require as few visits to the pits as possible. Not everything went according to plan again today – he lost around two-and-a-half seconds when he clipped a wheel leaving the pits after his first pit stop.

Inspiring drive from Lewis, and clearly proves he is making better racing decisions. Great passes, controlled aggression when needed and discipline to keep his lap times in the right window to keep the pace with our tearing up his tyre.

Now can people please stop saying Button looks after his tyres better then Lewis?

I totally agree. I won’t be entertaining anyone saying Lewis is no good managing tires and being ultra aggressive. Today he was better than the entrie field on both types of tires given that the soft he started on was a used tire that he set chart topping times on during qualifying. Very phenomenal performance I may add.

he wasnt best on the hards, look at second stint, not that fast, and sure he made the third stint last 31 laps, but at the expense of good lap times, hence being overtaken by vettel – his best lap time as a result was 2.3 seconds slower then the best, thats not phenomenal to me.

@theoddkiwi It was a brilliant performance from Hamilton, certainly a more mature drive than most of last years efforts. However, this game is all about consistency. He has a way to go to prove he can be as easy on the tyres as Button.

@andrewtanner Consistancy like scoring points in every race, unlike nearly every one else on the grid in particular his team mate. I think only Alonso is the exception.
His tyre issues have been more about car setup rather than race craft much like most of the drivers including twinkle toes Button, who couldnt make a three stopper work and faded at the end while Lewis was attacking Rosberg for 7th.

Of the top teams, McLaren seem to consistently have the slowest pit stops – even without any incidents. Ferrari’s pitstops (taken from the overhead cam) are a lesson in precision and smoothness. Why is it so difficult for McLaren to achieve the same level of efficiency?

And why does Massa always seem so difficult to overtake? I reckon without being stuck behind Massa for so long, Lewis would certainly have made it to 5th – as EJ predicted. Massa also made it difficult for Jensen, but his defence of Lewis was much more robust. Lewis would definitely not have fallen into the clutches of Vettel before the race ended, have would have attacked Rosberg earlier.

And why does Massa always seem so difficult to overtake? I reckon without being stuck behind Massa for so long, Lewis would certainly have made it to 5th – as EJ predicted.

Watching the OnBoard’s from Massa/Hamilton on Sky, Massa wasn’t really having to defend against Hamilton that hard.

The problem Lewis had was that with DRS & the slipstream down the start/finish straght he was hitting the limiter well before turn 1 & often had to pull out the slipstream early to drop the revs to get it off the limiter.

Recall a radio message in Friday practice from on eof the McLaren drivers saying the had 7th gear too low, seems that carried over into the race.

Watching the OnBoard stuff all year I’ve noticed that McLaren often seem to be hitting the limiter earlier than others when using DRS & in the slipstream & its almost as if there gearing the car to maximise DRS for qualifying & its hurting them when trying to use it to overtake in the races as there just hitting the rev-limiter too early.

A perfect illustration of how these tyres are actually adding to the problem of overtaking the car ahead, all the rule changes to reduce the advantage the leading car has had as a result of turbulence effecting the following cars aerodynamics have been negated by the rapid tyre wear a following car endures. We now have less aerodynamic effect on a following car but a bigger disadvantage due to tyre wear, real progress now can only be made in the DRS zone and the pits.

If Lewis can avoid the pitstops as a whole, it would be the best thing for him. A mechanic even managed to leave a wheel gun directly under his wheel. Mechanics don’t suddenly get careless, and you can’t blame it on fatigue since this is just the 5th race. Mclaren is turning into a house of disasters and Withmarsh seems to be indifferent.

It was a wheel, not a wheel gun, actually. I would think that it was exactly due to having new guys since last race with limited opportunity to practice the stops in actual race circumstances, so it will likely get better.

I recall Hamilton saying in an interview that the team had been studying the gantry-camera film and were focusing on the small things like foot position and hand position. So I found it interesting that their new way of screwing up a stop is to leave the just-removed tire in the path of the car, i.e, a fundamental failure in the physical mechanics of the tire-change procedure.

I don’t think Whitmarsh is indifferent, just not perfectionist. The team needs someone who demands excellence now Dennis has stood aside. Could be the team head (Brawn/Dennis), designer (Newey) or even the driver (Alonso, Schumacher) but without that McLaren are missing that slightly manic quality that keeps everyone that extra bit sharp. Enough to win championships.

It must be great for Ferrari that at least one decision during the season preparation was a sound and working one, namely to focus on getting very fast, and consistently fast, pit stops. Must be giving the mechanics something to cheer for even when Alonso doesn’t manage to magic a rabbit out of the hat.